Caught in the Act

Malia and Sasha Obama Buy Young Adult Novels – and Camus

By Evan Lambert

07/17/2012 at 03:10 PM EDT

While some teens and preteens choose to fill their bookshelves with copies of The Hunger Games and Twilight, Malia and Sasha Obama are reading something a bit more advanced: existentialist literature.

The First Daughters, ages 14 and 11 respectively, were spotted at Manhattan's Strand Bookstore on Sunday – and in addition to picking young adult novels such as Imaginary Girls and Before I Fall, they pulled Albert Camus's Exile and the Kingdom.

Their aunt – Maya Soetoro-Ng (President Obama's half-sister) – paid for their purchases, which also included School!: Adventures at the Harvey N. Trouble Elementary School and two Strand souvenirs.

According to one Strand worker, the girls wore tank tops and jeans and were "incredibly polite." He also mentioned that Malia was with a friend who was "very, very funny."



Later that day, the girls saw Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark on Broadway with their mother, First Lady Michelle Obama.